“I’m screwed.” I fell back against the bed, breathing in the lavender surrounding me.
A creak in the wooden floors had me up and silently walking toward my cracked door. In my boxers and shirt, I crept to the other side of the hallway and saw Hazel. She wore a long jacket, which covered most of her soft, brown skin. Though her natural hairstyle was a dead giveaway to her identity, I’d loved her ringlets that spread wide, volumizing around her head.
My curiosity stopped me from making any noise. She was up to something, and I needed to find out what it was. I couldn’t protect her if she was galivanting in the night without me.
She’d stopped just before walking out the front door. Her head shifted toward the room I’d chosen to stay in. Perhaps she waited for me to come out and demand I tell her to get back to her bed. Seemingly satisfied, she opened the door, unaware I was cloaked in darkness ready to follow.
With quick feet, I crossed the room without a sound and watched as she walked down her driveway suspiciously from the window. I needed to get out there. With skill I’d learned from being in the military, I’d opened her door and crept out without her being aware of my actions.
The trees stopped rippling in the night breeze as she walked by, like they were drawn toward her instead of the wind rustling against them. I’d vaguely wondered if she was sleepwalking. Her slow pace indicated she didn’t need to rush to her destination, except every few minutes of her walk she’d start singing to herself. Despite her love of singing, I didn’t think she was “sleep singing.” Her voice began to loosen every ounce of my control. I wanted to walk up to her and demand she sing for me and only me.
Thankfully, for both of us, headlights broke through the distance ahead of her. I’d rallied my powers within, and the wind around us picked up slightly. I’d ducked behind a tree, close enough to see what would happen and respond, if needed.
“Thanks for coming,” she said to the silhouette that exited the SUV but left it running.
“Had a feeling you wanted to talk in person.” The male chuckled and stepped into the light, his hazel brown eyes shifting to me. He smirked, then focused on Hazel.
Phillip Griffin, head of Griffin Enterprises, was essentially the head of the Hero Society. Interesting. I’d known about the group and their set of powers since the first time they tried to become an entity. That first time, they’d nearly lost the world. Now, after having traveled back in time and resetting things, the society seemed to be doing well protecting mankind. Some with powers remember the year before they reset things, and some didn’t. I envied those who didn’t.
“Yeah, I guess that whole knowing the future thing helps.” Hazel’s smile made my chest ache, longing for her grin to be directed at my undeserving self.
“I’ll probably have to pull back on duties until I figure out my new bodyguard situation. I hope that’s OK.” Her fingers pulled against the tie of her jacket nervously.
“Of course, when you’re truly needed, we’ll signal you.” Phillip nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder in a friendly manner for comfort.
“I know you don’t tell people the future.” She started to speak, and the rest of the words stuck in her throat.
Phillip answered, knowing she would ask anyway. It was a perk of seeing all potential futures like he did.
“I don’t, but I will say I always bet on love. Every time.” He smiled and released his hold on her shoulder.
My heart beat wildly against my rib cage. His gaze darted to me, knowing I stood hidden in a shadow of the large tree beyond her sight.
“I had suspicions you’d say something like that, but it’s not possible.” She sighed, her hands clenched at her sides.
“Keep being the warrior Hazel, and maybe every now and then let a little chink in the armor show.” He gave her one last knowing smile before jumping back in his car and reversing down the driveway.
This conversation wouldn’t have occurred if she didn’t have any involvement with the Hero Society. Hazel was part of their group, which was a confirmation of my fears of Hazel having powers. It solidified the rumor she was being hunted by the Collector.
Chapter Five
Hazel
Part of me hoped Maddie as my new bodyguard would be a dream when I woke up. However, hope burned to little pieces on my wooden floors when I saw him sitting comfortably at my kitchen table with coffee in one hand and a tablet in the other.
“Morning.” His gruff voice did not make a shiver dance down my body. He didn’t look attractive with his messy blond hair that made his blue eyes pop, either. I needed something strong to get me through this day.
I went to make myself a cup of coffee, when I noticed a cup sitting on the table waiting for me. With a sigh, I walked to the cup and peered inside.
“You still like it with a little sugar and milk?” he asked and I nodded, my hands lifting the cup to take a sip cautiously.
“You didn’t have any milk, but I used what was in there. How long have you been a vegetarian?”
Small talk, an indulgence I didn’t care to partake in at the moment.
“A while.” I sipped the coffee and bit back the moan that threatened to give Maddie the satisfaction of making my drink tasty. Not that coffee was a complicated beverage to make, but he remembered exactly how I liked it.
“I think we should talk.” He freed up his hands and looked at me expectantly. I didn’t want to talk with him, and maybe it was childish, but I’d built a wall up around those particular emotions and setting them free didn’t sound fun.
“I’m good. Your job is to be a bodyguard, and while I’m here no one is going to hurt me, so you can do whatever it is you do during the day. I’m going to finish this cup of coffee, eat a yogurt, then head out to my garden. After that, I’ll probably work in my music room, eat lunch, then chill for a bit. Nothing exciting. You don’t have to be around for all the boring stuff.”
I used the word “boring” out loud because to him it probably would be, but to me today’s agenda sounded amazing. I enjoyed the city and life of a famous singer, but I loved this side of me, too—the woman who got her hands dirty in the garden and who sat in her sweater and underwear all day writing music and hanging out. I could just be here, listen to the silence of the forest, and be thankful for my life.
“I’m not going anywhere.” His stare challenged me to deny him. I may have read too much into his statement, then pushed the sentiment away.
Instead of choosing to sit at the table with him, I grabbed a yogurt from the fridge and carried my breakfast to the porch swing outside to watch the morning sun rise over my property.
As much as his presence bothered me, I needed to find a way to come to terms with it. We both had changed, and I didn’t know him anymore than I would have known a random bodyguard chosen by the label. I could tighten the armor around my chest and go on living like he hadn’t shattered the beating heart behind it so long ago. With resolve to ignore the issues of the past sitting in my kitchen, I finished my breakfast and went inside to change for gardening.
By the time I finished getting dressed in a pair of super-worn-out jeans, a pale pink sweater, and my flower printed rain boots, Maddie waited in the garden. His massive body in cargo pants and a hoodie didn’t harmonize with the plant life well. He looked moderately out of his element, which made me smile for second.
“You look like a body-building gnome standing there.” I chuckled, bringing his attention from the primroses opening for the season to me. His rigid posture shifted to look over my mismatched appearance with a curious stare. Instead of attempting to ferret out the motivations behind his roaming gaze, I walked over to my storage bench and grabbed my gardening gloves.
“I’m gonna pick weeds. You really don’t need to stand there if you don’t want to.” My second attempt to push him away went unheeded. He stood there like a statue as I knelt down into the dew-covered ground and pulled weeds. Of course, I could have taken care of my garden with my powers, but I f
ound doing it by my own hands peaceful. Music and gardening are where my mind could drift off and find peace.
However, no amount of dirt digging, bright flowers, and veggies I’d piled into a basket over the hour could distract my brain this time. Maddie had weaseled his way into my life like a mosquito, and no matter how hard I tried to swat him away, he was a persistent bugger.
The rest of the day passed in the same manner. No matter how I tried to relax my nerves with him here, the distraction remained. Didn’t he have a life? Social media to scroll? Anything other than to be in a constantly twenty-foot radius from me? Even my writing room couldn’t save me from his presence. I’d sat at my piano to play, but every time my fingers touched the ivory keys, my thoughts shifted to Maddox’s judgment of my music. Did he know the song that gave me my big break was about him? Had he listened to my music over the years? Did he think I sucked?
After fifteen minutes of frustration, I walked from my music room back to the main section of the house and disrobed my jeans to get comfy and make lunch. I offered him some food and he declined with the same gruff voice from earier, his focus out the window giving my face a break for once today. Fine, he was an adult. He wouldn’t starve himself.
I ate on the couch and watched one of my favorite TV shows. I laughed and smiled, but I felt his blue eyes staring at me so intensely. I sensed the need to move from where I sat on the couch, watching the newest episode of my favorite show. It was rare for me to be able to sit down and watch one of my shows not on the DVR, and he was ruining my mood by being surly and stoic.
“I doubt anyone is going to attack me while I sit in my living room wearing my sweater. No one’s hiding beneath the couch, so can you go outside the room or something. Your stare is annoying.”
His stare wasn’t really annoying . . . it was annoying the young, fifteen-year-old Hazel inside my heart . . . the Hazel who had been in love with him and liked his eyes upon her, even if it was only for her protection. But Maddox had been gone a long time from my life, and now we were two different people: a hippie singer and an ex-military brute. My temporary bodyguard who I didn’t need.
I’d hoped he left, but instead he remained at his chosen post. Fine, if he wanted to be a pain in the ass, then I would be one right back. I stretched toward the sky, then took off my oversized sweater. A body was a body to me, and I embraced my own beauty long ago. However, being close to a naked person freaked many people out, and right now I was willing to use my body as a tool to make him feel uncomfortable.
Sitting back on the couch in nothing but my nakedness, I reached over to the coffee table and grabbed my teacup with a big smile on my face. Sucker. Barely paying attention to the show, I listened for his large frame moving to the door.
But it never came.
The man was impossible! The whole situation was ridiculous. I was perfectly capable of handling myself against anyone who tried to hurt me. I was part of the Hero Society and had eighty-three saves on my hero belt. Of course, I couldn’t tell my label that. To them I was Hazel Kennedy, five-time platinum-record singer and advocate hippie for all green life. Plants and trees were my jam. However, what they didn’t know was that at night, I was someone else. In my hero suit, I became a warrior, using my power over plants to help save lives and protect the innocent.
Maddie was completely unnecessary. There was no need for his massive body to be so close all the time or his blond hair and beard to smell like a crisp breeze from the frosty mountains. There was no need for him to look at me with those same eyes I’d once written songs about in my teenage bedroom.
I had to get rid of him somehow. Suddenly, an idea occurred to me, guaranteed to get Maddie out of my life as easily as he had before.
Eat your heart out, Maddox Kennedy. You have no idea who you just agreed to bodyguard. I wasn’t the Hazel he remembered, and it was time I introduced him to the new and improved Hazel.
Chapter Six
Maddox
I felt her smile from across the room. She didn’t need to turn my way and reveal the devious expression on her face for me to know her thoughts. I knew Hazel, the one on the inside. She wanted me gone, and I might have been a bit of a dick today by staying close, but I wasn’t going anywhere.
I saw the cogs in her brain working overtime, devising a plan to make me leave of my own free will. She wanted to annoy me, try to make me uncomfortable, or anything to get me to walk out of her life again. I knew she had a thick armor around herself against me, and she had every right to be so protective. I had abandoned her.
However, I couldn’t change the past. Wherever she stood, I would be there, too. Even when she grew older, found someone who cherished her like I would have, and had beautiful babies together. My hands clenched across my chest as I leaned against the door.
Her perfectly brown skin looked so soft from here. The silhouette of her neck begged for a mouth and tongue to lay claim. Nudity lost its appeal in the military. I couldn’t give a fuck about the human body, but her body had the opposite effect on me that I knew she wanted. I didn’t want to shy away from her nakedness or cover her up. My masculinity wasn’t fragile. I’d seen how she presented herself to the world. She held her head high and remained free. She almost never wore a bra and embraced her woman’s figure, empowering woman with every sweet breath her lungs expelled. I’d been on missions where the only thing that got some men through the hard times was thinking about how sexy she was, imagining her body with theirs. The only thing that got me through was the knowledge that she wasn’t truly theirs. They never knew how her smile could make any day feel brighter, or how she loved spending her days being in the woods, hands in the dirt. She sometimes talked in her sleep and loved to snuggle close into the nook between your arm and chest. I’d basked in her before. I’d experienced Hazel Kennedy first hand. They hadn’t.
So this little stunt of hers would entertain us both for a while. I’d get to see a precious gift I could never touch, and she’d be safe without a care about the Collector, who was on the hunt for her.
She didn’t know about my power, either. I controlled air. I could direct a breeze to lick the front of her chest, pebbling her nipples with the chill. On the other side of my burdensome gift was with a single thought, all the air in her lungs would be gone and she could suffocate to death. When I first came into my powers on my sixteenth birthday like the rest of the people like me did, I was unable to control it. I’d nearly killed a boy that day. If I hadn’t been so overwhelmed with the gripping emotions that created a literal tornado that swept me away, I would have killed him.
Fear squeezed me like a constrictor, nearly paralyzing me at the thought of hurting her by accident. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, even if I had stayed. The woman before me, watching TV in the nude evolved because of all that happened. Without the pain and heartbreak, she would have never written the song leading to her successful career. Who knows where we’d be if we’d both been normal people like everyone else.
My regret was when she came into her powers, I wasn’t there for her to assist through the confusion. It took two years before I felt confident to be around people without a major leash on my powers. The military gave me control on many levels, as well as a purpose. I’d keep the world safe for Hazel and many others, while they lived peacefully from threats they didn’t know about. I’d found a family within my unit, but I knew I’d return one day to my first family—Hazel —in whatever way I could, whether it be as her protector, lover, or someone she scowled at when our eyes met.
She stretched in another attempt to make me uncomfortable, but she failed. Her loud sigh echoed around the brightly decorated room before she grabbed a soft green blanket and snuggled against a pillow. After a few minutes of silence, I heard mumbling from the couch. Pure curiosity made me move silently over her floor to see if she’d fallen asleep. Hazel had the gift of falling asleep in seconds anywhere. We’d been homeless as kids together. We’d slept on the ground, under bridges, and abandoned houses
until we got placed in a home. I’d often envied her easy embrace of blissful sleep.
One glance at the woman with a blanket wrapped around her naked body confirmed my suspicions.
“Sugar snaps.” Her sleepy mumble made me smile, and all the tension melted. I used to give her so much shit about sleep-talking, but in reality, I could listen to her talk anytime, even in her sleep.
“Mmm . . . peonies and peanut butter.” She smiled briefly before her lips parted and the words stopped flowing unfiltered past her lips.
I bit back a chuckle that threatened to end the moment. She needed the rest, and I could use a break to see what my informant found on the elusive Collector. I wouldn’t be so up her ass in the days to come, but for now I enjoyed watching her squirm in my presence. Or maybe I’d wait it out until her little schemes to rid me were over. I walked to my temporary room and sat on the bed. The little green light indicated I had an email, so I wasted no time opening it up.
“Fuck.” I whispered my curse in an attempt to not wake Hazel.
A body was found brutally wounded, about twenty miles from here. A famous Olympic archer, who from my research I’d learned had powers from Artemis, the goddess for the hunt. She could shoot an arrow with perfect precision. She swore someone told her to cut the words, “Tornado, She’s Mine,” into her abdomen, then shoot four arrows into the sky so they would embed their points deep in her flesh when they descended. Her arms, shoulders, and legs had arrows sticking out like spikes. I watched the news media’s video of her tears pour down her dirt-covered face as she wailed about someone not wanting her because she was not rare enough for the mantle.
Wind stirred the curtains in different directions, as the book’s pages in the shelf across from the bed rattled. I took a deep breath, fighting the impulse of my power to be unleashed. My unit called me Tornado, mostly because they knew what I could do, but also because when I was called to fight, I fucked everything up like a damn tornado in a trailer park. I was the force to be feared like the damn storm itself. This Collector picked the wrong man to start a war with.
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